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Thursday, October 09, 2008

Banksy hits New York and Opens Pet Store

Gothamist broke a story yesterday about Banksy’s new billboards in New York. Apparently one is located at the corner of Houston and Macdougal, and another on Canal and West Broadway. Banksy had the following to say to Gothamist about his billboards, “I wanted to play the corporations at their own game, at the same scale and in the same locations. The advantage of billboard companies is that they’ll let you write anything for money, even if what you write is questioning the ethics of letting someone write anything because they have money.”

Is Banksy building up excitement for a major New York exhibit? Maybe. Rumors are bouncing around. As it stands he has already established a public exhibit in the form of a pet store. However, the only aspect of street art involved with the space is that it can be observed from the street. At 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street in the West Village of New York City one can find Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill. Banksy's work in the space involves hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and other foods representing animals as if they were pets. Banksy utilized animatronics so that the 'pets' move around. Apparently this is the first time that Banksy has used animatronics.

Video by Marc Schil

Of the work Banksy has stated, “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art."